Legal Woes Building For Commissioners But Most Residents At Forum Support Move To Abolish Building Department

Bonner County commissioners are in a quagmire of problems since they voted to abolish the county building department more than a month ago.

A special prosecutor was appointed this week to probe whether commissioners met illegally when they eliminated the department and fired employees.

Former workers and several groups of residents have filed four separate lawsuits against commissioners for eliminating the department.

Tuesday night, about 100 residents turned out at a forum sponsored by several property-rights groups to find out how a lack of building codes will affect them.

“This kind of format should have happened prior to dismantling the building department,” said Commissioner Dale Van Stone, who opposed the closure. “This could have been handled real smoothly, and we would not be in the pickle we are now.”

But nearly everyone in the audience supported commissioners Larry Allen and Bud Mueller for deregulating the county. Van Stone was at another meeting and did not attend the forum.

A panel of speakers, including a banker and insurance salesman, reassured residents it will not cost them more to build homes without codes and building inspectors.

Teri Ottens, a spokesman for the Idaho Association of Counties, disagrees. She had a presentation prepared for commissioners on insurance rates last week, but the commissioners canceled her appointment.

A new policy by insurance companies will rate how well counties enforce building codes. It will be similar to fire insurance ratings. Counties without a department will automatically get a “10” rating, the worst possible.

“That rating will immediately impact the insurance rate. Those counties without (building departments) will see … in the future much higher rates for their citizens,” Ottens said.

That view was disputed by Jim Semick, president of Independent Insurance Agents of Idaho.

The new insurance policy, he told residents Tuesday, is aimed at lowering rates for counties with quality building departments. The ratings will not kick in until the year 2000, and it will only affect how structures are built to handle high winds and earthquakes, he said.

“It’s a non-issue. At worst it will cost (people) a couple of dollars,” Semick said to a round of applause.

While Allen and Mueller enjoyed a night of back-patting, they said they may launch their own investigation into the defunct building department.

Equipment and supplies worth about $100,000 turned up missing after employees were fired and the offices were closed, according to Diana Gray, the county’s new staff director.

Gray called for the items to be returned and much of it was. She estimates $10,000 worth is still missing.

Apparently other county workers snapped up supplies and equipment for their own offices, Van Stone said.

Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson may be asked to step in to get the property back, but Van Stone said he isn’t sure that’s necessary.

“This could be a serious issue or a lot of this could be a misunderstanding,” the commissioner said. “Part of the problem is there was no direction given by commissioners at the time the department was closed. It turned into a free-for-all.

Van Stone has accused his colleagues of holding an illegal meeting on Jan. 15 and secretly plotting the building department’s closure. He called for Robinson to investigate if the state Open Meetings Law was violated.

Robinson declared a conflict of interest since he advises county commissioners. He has since appointed Boundary County Prosecutor Denise Woodbury to review the allegations.

Van Stone, a Democrat, initially objected to Woodbury’s appointment because she is a Republican and was past president of her county’s Republican Party. The commissioners being investigated are Republicans.

But Van Stone said he changed his mind after being assured that Woodbury can be impartial.

“I’m just glad something is moving. Nothing has happened with this for a month,” he said.

While the investigations get under way, commissioners have hired a building official to fend off one lawsuit filed against them.

The building official will complete inspections for several hundred residents who paid for building permits prior to the department closing. A complaint against the county asked for more than $1 million in building permit refunds, or for the county to provide the services it promised residents.

The lawsuit claimed there are more than 8,000 outstanding building permits that require inspections. A review by county officials put the estimate at 680 permits that amount to $157,000 in fees, not $1 million.

, DataTimes